The December 30, 2009 issue of The Wall Street Journal included a fun article on the inadequacies of the current calendar, called, “Time and Again, the Calendar Comes Up Short,” by Charles Forelle (The Numbers Guy). In short, astronomically, the current calendar is still a bit off. Blame what he called “Earth’s inconvenient orbit,” — slowly leading us astray.
The article focused on possible solutions, including something called the World Calendar, developed by the United Nations in the 1950s. It’s nice and neat, with each month allotted 30 or 31 days and a total of 12 months, but this calendar adds an extra 365th day (called Worldsday) onto the end of the year. That addition would mean that the last week of the year would have eight days instead of seven.
Apparently, when this calendar was first proposed, people balked because the change would mess up the Sabbath. When I read this, I laughed. You mean, enough people actually care about observing the Sabbath to complain?
Mr. Wayne Edward Richardson, director of the World Calendar Association, is holding out hope that 2012 could be the year for the World Calendar. To the complainers, he said that Worldsday could be a “double Sabbath.”
Now we’re talking! Wouldn’t that be fun? A day suspended between years. The longer I do this Sabbath thing, the more I want. Imagine getting a second helping, a double-dip cone, a 24/8.
I know it won’t happen. But the spectre of change makes me want to enjoy what I’ve got, on this Sabbath day.
